March 21, 2006

Liturgical Movements?

According to a Vatican source, the commission will approve “a proposal and a plan for liturgical reform,” which will be made public in the Apostolic Exhortation that the Holy Father will tentatively issue in October.

The Vatican source said that the exhortation would include an invitation to greater use of Latin in the daily prayer of the Church and in the Mass—with the exception of the Liturgy of the Word—as well as in large public and international Masses.

The document would also encourage a greater use of Gregorian chant and classical polyphonic music; the gradual elimination of the use of songs whose music or lyrics are secular in origin, as well as the elimination of instruments that are “inadequate for liturgical use,” such as the electric guitar or drums, although it is not likely that specific instruments will be mentioned.

Archbishop Piero Marini, the master of ceremonies for papal liturgies, spoke to the Italian internet site on March 20, during a visist to Milan for the publication of his book, Liturgy and Beauty. Archbishop Marini revealed that Pope Benedict XVI has been more demanding than his predecessor in watching plans for liturgical celebrations at the Vatican.

"With John Paul II I had a bit more freedom," the Italian prelate told the Affaritaliani.it web site, "We had an implicit pact, because he was a man of prayer and not a liturgist." With the new Pope, he continued, "I have to be a bit more attentive, because he is an expert on liturgy."

The master of papal ceremonies said that he and the Pope are now carrying out a re-examination of papal liturgical celebrations. He reported that he regularly sends his notes to the Pontiff, who returns them with corrections, suggestions, or a note of approval.

Interesting, but it is a long time to October and leaks seem to follow the same rules at the Vatican that they do in Washington -- often the leaks are coming from someone who wants the policy to go a particular way, before it has been set, or is opposed to how it seems to be going and wants to gin up support for an alternative approach.

not that EVERYTHING relates back to the traditional Mass (really ;-))but by allowing the free celebration of the traditional Mass, it would put pressure on the proper celebration of the new Mass, and assist any meaningful revision/restoration of the sacred in that rite of Mass. So, all conservative/orthodox Catholics should be earnestly praying for the so-called "universal indult".

Later in that interview, Marini pronounces reconciliation of the SSPX without their abandonment of their entire foundations to be flatly impossible, or words to that effect. Comfortingly, a Pope trumps an Archbishop. And perhaps Benedict sees fit to remind Marini of what he perhaps had forgotten a little: he is the servant of the Servant of the Servants of God.

My humble intuition about why the Holy Father has kept Marini around, for what it's worth: These two had divergent views, to say the least, about liturgy, during the last pontificate. It's hard to believe that there's sudden change or capitulation on the Holy Father's part, nor endorsement implied by the fact that Marini's still around.

If Benedict gets rid of Marini, and then restores and frees the Mass of Pius V and dramatically reforms the Mass of Paul VI, that's one thing. But all that Marini represents continues right on, with the added cachet of Marini as a living embodiment of Bugninism having been dramatically cast out.

But if Benedict keeps Marini around, right next to him, and restores and frees the Mass of Pius V, reconciles the Lefevbrists, and dramatically reforms the Mass of Paul VI, *through* Marini in a sense, with Marini standing grimly right next to him, then he not only effects what he wants liturgically, he also pronounces the passing of all that Marini has stood for up to now. Can't do that as summarily with a "new guy" at his side and Marini off in a retirement See somewhere.

It's not that Marini has been kept around. It's that he hasn't been allowed to leave.

Pope Benedict the Sixteenth,
formerly known as Cardinal Ratizinger,
the Vatican's enforcer and watchdog,
is expected to issue a document in October
(called an Exhortation),
that will declare:

...steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them...

...The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy...
But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action...

...In the Latin Church the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem...But other instruments also may be admitted for use in divine worship...on condition that the instruments are suitable, or can be made suitable, for sacred use, accord with the dignity of the temple, and truly contribute to the edification of the faithful....

Horrors!
It's the big smack-down!
Back to the Dark Ages!

What new and novel oppressions this dictatorial Pope, in collusion with his backward-looking curia, is planning to force upon the God-and-neighbor-loving, OCP-and-GIA-singing American Church!

Where does he get these ideas?
No doubt, from the dark recesses of the Inquisition!

Doesn't he realize that the Roman Catholic Church needs aggiornamento?

"Years ago we went (with the Pope) to visit a diocese. At the end, when we were about to get into the car, we couldn't find the Pope. He wasn't lost: he had remained in the sacristy to pray, leaning on the edge of a sink."

Hmmm... right. I am forced to wonder if the Pope wasn't at the sink because of the creative things he had just seen during the Mass.

In any event, I just posted a translation of another piece of that article. Thanks, Amy, for the heads up.